“Both political parties are treating the Big Four auditors as a protected species, shielding them from scrutiny over political donations. From the banking royal commission to tax avoidance and the wilful hollowing out of the public service, the corporate takeover of public services and public revenue is threatening the proper functioning of government. This has got to end.”

And rising. The value of their government consultancy gigs has doubled since the Coalition was elected. This is just the federal government. Advisory work for state governments is also a large source of income for the Big Four, perhaps just as large as federal taxpayer income in toto.

The timing of this latest Big Four affront to the will of parliament – they were called to appear but not compelled to appear as such would require a majority of votes – is ironic as the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) unveiled its annual party donations data this week. Of the $207 million in political donations, the Liberals got $107 million, Labor $71 million, Greens $16 million and Nationals $12 million.

The Big Four, who have won almost half-a-billion dollars from taxpayers in consultancy work since 2013, donated more than $800,000 to the Liberal and Labor parties.

One key message to emerge from the donations inquiry has been that “other” is a very large source of income for Australia’s political parties. That is, most corporate funding is secreted into companies controlled by political parties. It is often hidden.

As this story by politics lecturer Lindy Edwards attests the major parties only disclose a fraction of their income as donations. Edwards: “Over the last decade, the major parties have routinely only transparently disclosed 10-20 per cent of their incomes as donations.

“There is another 20-35 per cent of party incomes that falls into a grey area, where accounting enables them to conceal the source of the money. Then there is another 50-70 per cent of party incomes the public knows absolutely nothing about.”

Globally, their combined revenue last year was $168 billion. If it is good enough for these four firms to orchestrate global tax avoidance, win hundreds of millions of dollars a year in government mandates – while thousands of public servants are shown the door; while it is good enough for them to pontificate to government about policy while concealing their own financial affairs, surely then it is good enough, when asked by Australia’s parliament to appear before an inquiry, for them not to respond with “get stuffed”.

New Michael West Podcast

Created by PodcastOne, this 3 part series looks into how Australia has gone from one of the cheapest countries in the world for energy to one of the most expensive, and reveals just what has happened with our gas and electricity supply and why we are on the verge of an energy crisis.